Into the wild: Animals the latest frontier in COVID fight

By LAURA UNGAR
AP Science Writer

GRAND PORTAGE, Minn. (AP) — Wildlife experts are searching for the virus that causes COVID-19 in deer, bears, moose and wolves in Minnesota’s north woods. They are among researchers around the world trying to figure out how and where wildlife is spreading the coronavirus at a time when international health agencies are calling for greater tracking of infected animals. Scientists are deeply concerned that the virus could evolve within animal populations – potentially spawning dangerous viral mutants that could jump back to people, spread among us and reignite what seems like a waning pandemic. They point out the virus has already leaped from humans to animals and back again.